Mead Dragon's Blood

[Spikedlemon]

Planning out a Honey-based dragon's blood for this summer. I intend to start out this weekend for a 6gal batch.

6kg Honey
4kg Mixed-Berries
1cup Lemon Juice
1tsp Tannin
3tsp Pectic Enzyme
1tsp Yeast Energizer
3tsp Yeast Nutrient (staggered possibly)
1cup raisins
EC-1118 Yeast

If I get to a grocery store before I start: I'll pick up a can of grape juice concentrate instead of adding the raisins.

I'll definitely be adding sorbate and back-sweetening a little to bring it up around 1.010 or so.


I'll try to update as I go along in this thread.

 

[AkTom]

Sounds good. I might have to try that too.
Thanks

 

[Spikedlemon]

Started up the brew this afternoon and smelt wonderful. I did finally make it to her store to get the can of grape juice but forgot to the he lime juice; I suppose I can always add lemon or acid later.

 

[Coloradoraptor]

You don't need the raisins or grape juice. I make a similar blend without the raisins because they muddy the fruit blend flavor profile.

 

[Spikedlemon]

I didn't really add the raisins for flavor but rather to protect against lack of nutrition if I'm short. I ultimately only added a heavy handful so is unlikely to have a significant impact either way but made me feel better.

The grape juice was a way to help fortify the beverage and raise the ABV without adding more honey/sugar. And, besides, it smells wonderful!

My SG was 1.090 on day one. On day two, after squeezing the fruit again, it was still reading 1.090 but the airlock was bubbing away so I am likely a couple points over that reading (likely closer to 13%) which gets me to a good place I think.

I squeezed the fruit thoroughly on day one and made quite the mess (contained in the bucket) as one of the bags burst out some fruit.

 

[jburtner]

I'm planning a similar "Dràco Bloodè" with white grape juice instead of water & honey instead of sugar. Plus several times the original called for amount of berries. I have used golden raisins too and like what they do so will use them again and a banana or two.

Nutrient step feeding with go ferm and fermaid k - some sort of pectic enzyme appropriate lallzyme product...

Interested to see how you like yours!

Cheers,
johann

 

[Whitehrs]

do you have any pictures? Change updates? a final methodology? Very curious.

 

[Bodenski]

So I'm doing something similar, but without any lemon juice or added tannins. I started a little higher, with the initial SG reading being 1.130. (I expect it to finish sweet. I'm using 71B yeast, which should finish up at 14%, leaving me at 1.020 if I figured it out all right.) I'm curious if I'll need to add any acid blend at the end once it finishes out to get it "right."

I do know that I'm not planning on this being a "this summer" drink. I figure it will be awesome next year around summer. And I think I've come up with a good name for my brew - "Blushing Bee Mead." Since I didn't use any lemon juice I didn't want to go with the dragon blood name.

 

[Mortalpawn]

I would suggest instead of adding tannins or lemon juice up front, when you have no idea what the finished acidity balance will be you are better off waiting to the end and then add some tannins or acid blend or lemon/lime juice if your mead ends up too sweet/cloying or "flabby". Particularly with a fruit mead you will get additional acidity from the fruit which means you can accidentally drive the pH too low resulting in fermentation issues. Also the acid from the berries will offset the sweetness from the honey and may make adding tannins/acid/juice not necessary.

A staggered nutrient addition like TONSA-2 would be better than the raisins or generic yeast nutrient. This is the "latest" staggered nutrient schedule many pro mead makers are using: http://www.meadmakr.com/tosna-2-0/ and it works remarkably well.

 

[Spikedlemon]

As an update to the recipe:
6kg Honey
4kg Mixed-Berries
1tsp Tannin
3tsp Pectic Enzyme
1tsp Yeast Energizer
3tsp Yeast Nutrient (staggered)
Handful raisins
EC-1118 Yeast
1 Can of Grape Juice concentrate (Welch's)

I've found the lemon juice in the cupboard (or, rather, the missus found it for me) and I agree that it'll be a later addition to see how it balances. I wanted to add the tannins in early to get them to settle in - rather than try to add them late and not get a decent 'feel' for the flavor profile.

The mix smells VERY raspberry and I've been taking to trying to get the most out of the blueberries in the mix to try to balance it down. I may end up back sweetening it with a juice concentrate rather than sugar or honey if the flavor is too tilted.

I did plan on making it for consumption this summer but I'm doubtful that it'll be fully consumed this year so there'll be a part of the batch that'll extend out to next year. And there's some peach Chardonnay leftover from last year

 

[Whitehrs]

Peach Chard? recipe? I'm trying to get the right peach wine for my wife who is a very occasional drinker, and loves peach.

 

[Spikedlemon]

Peach Chard? recipe? I'm trying to get the right peach wine for my wife who is a very occasional drinker, and loves peach.

It's was a cheap kit. We're no fan of sweet wines so I added half the F-pack into primary and fermented it and used the second half to back-sweeten and it still turned out a little too sweet for our tastes. We mix it with juice when we drink it but some of my wife's friends love it as-is.

I would make it again but not back-sweeten so much (maybe 3/4 F-pack in primary?).

 

[AkTom]

I just started a 1 gallon batch. I'll pitch yeast tomorrow.

 

[Spikedlemon]

It's pretty much finished at this point fermenting and I'll take a SG reading and likely rack it tonight. The raspberry scent has really died off and it's much more mellow and 'together'.

I think that some Lemon Wine (SP) would actually be a good topper for this beverage if I need to add some acid back into it. Otherwise I think any red wine'll work (Zin).

 

[aabshire]

I start one the 1st part of July I am calling "Brethren of the Red" for our Texas Renaissance Festival clan of the same name. I am using a much heavier fruit mix than Danger Dave's and more strawberries but basically following his recipe and utilizing TOSNA 2.0 and aeration at least once a day.

Ingredients
20 lbs Wildflower Honey (local)
6 lbs Triple Berry Blend (blueberry/rasberry/blackberry)
6 lbs Strawberry
32 oz 100% Real Lemon Juice
1 tsp Tannin
4 tsp Pectic Enzyme
15 grams EC-1118
15 grams Go-Ferm (1 tbl)
25 grams Fermaid O 5 tsp
1/4 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite
3 tsp Potassium Sorbate
1 tbl Sparkolloid

07/03/17 Starting SG 1.120
07/24/17 SG 1.000
Racked, degassed, added Sparkoloid, K-meta & K-sorbate
08/04/17 Racked again & back sweetened with 3 cups honey (about 1 1/2 lbs)

So far it is coming along nicely.